News and analysis on politics, human rights and civil society in Latin America by Geoffrey Ramsey

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

U.S. Not Swapping for Alan Gross Anytime Soon

The recent swap of five Guantanamo
detainees for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the last American prisoner of war in
Afghanistan, has clear parallels to the case of imprisoned USAID contractor
Alan Gross, whom the Cuban government wants to exchange for the three remaining
members of the Cuban Five in United States custody. The Obama administration, however,
continues to insist on his unconditional
release.

Saturday's prisoner
exchange for Bergdahl caught the
attention of Fernando Gonzalez, one of the original Cuban Five who returned to Havana in February after 15 years behind bars in the U.S.
The AP reports that in a press conference yesterday, Gonzalez claimed the swap set a
precedent for trading Gross. “It is
obvious that the only thing needed is the will on the part of the U.S.
government to bring about that swap or exchange,” he said.

Gonzalez was not the only one to make this
comparison. In the State Department's daily press briefing yesterday,
spokeswoman Jen Psaki was grilled by one reporter on the similarities between
the Bergdahl swap and Cuba's proposal for trading Gross. Despite the overlap,
her response confirms that a trade isn't on the administration's horizon. From the transcript:

QUESTION: Right.
But this seems to be – especially in the Alan Gross case, the Cubans have made
it perfectly clear – not just privately, but I mean, they’re screaming it from
the rooftops – that if there can be a resolution to the three remaining of the
Cuban Five, that then Alan Gross will be freed.

MS. PSAKI: I
– again, every circumstance is different, Matt, and I’m not going to speak to
every circumstance from the podium. But this is a case where he was a member –
is a member of the military. He was detained during an armed combat – armed
combat. These were a unique set of circumstances.

QUESTION: So
working for another agency of the government makes a difference? You’re not
prepared to trade people for someone who was not serving in uniform?[...]But in
the Alan Gross case, the Cubans have made it very clear that if these prisoners
are released who have served 15 years in prison already – if these guys are –
these three guys, remaining three are released, that they will – that they’ll
basically release Gross, who you have similar concerns about his health and safety,
as you did with Sergeant Bergdahl. And you wouldn’t actually be breaking the
law, or going around the law, in releasing these guys who have served – in
releasing these three guys, the Cubans. I just don’t understand --

MS. PSAKI: We
look at each case differently, Matt.

News Briefs

The Brazil chapter of freedom of expression
and information advocacy group Article 19 has released
a new report on police abuses in the country. The study cites specific
examples of disproportionate use of force, arbitrary arrests and
criminalization of free expression during last year’s protests, “tactics
reminiscent of those used under the old authoritarian regime.” As O
Globo reports, researchers tallied 2,608 arrests and eight deaths linked to
696 protests in 2013. As a remedy, the group calls for the country to reform
and modernize its police force to guarantee respect for freedom of assembly.

Yesterday, a Caracas court began hearing
arguments over whether to proceed with a case against imprisoned Venezuelan
opposition figure Leopoldo Lopez, who is accused of inciting violence in recent
protests in the country. The hearing was adjourned
yesterday after ten hours, and is set
to resume this morning. El Universal reports that in his statement, Lopez said he was being
imprisoned for "denouncing that in Venezuela we live in a
dictatorship," and that he preferred “to explain to my children why I am a
prisoner instead of explaining why they have no country.”

In a column for El
Espectador, Cesar Rodriguez Garavito of the Bogota-based Dejusticia human
rights group takes a look at the potential “beneficiaries” of a Zuluaga presidential
win in Colombia. In addition to opponents of the peace talks, conservative
sectors and financial elites, Rodriguez argues that the Uribista candidate’s
victory would benefit Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his penchant for
picking “nationalist fights” with Colombia over ideological issues.

The WSJ
has an update on Peruvian President Ollanta Humala’s new
tack on illicit coca cultivation in the coca-rich VRAEM region. The paper notes
that the U.S. embassy in Lima has said it is “consulting with the Government of
Peru on its revised plans to counter the negative impacts of illicit narcotics
activity in the Vraem.”

The AP
has picked up on the fact that, after Uruguay’s general primaries on
Sunday, the two leading presidential candidates ahead of October’s election support
legalized marijuana in some fashion. As noted
in yesterday’s post, opposition National Party candidate Luis Lacalle Pou
actually submitted a cannabis legalization bill in 2010, before the government
unveiled its proposal.

The BBC’s Emily Buchanan has uncovered
evidence that the UK
government collaborated with Brazil’s military dictatorship on its
crackdown on dissidents, pointing to
internal documents which suggest the British army provided training and advice
on interrogation techniques honed during the Northern Ireland conflict.

In response to the surge
in unaccompanied undocumented child immigrants along the southern Texas
border that caused the Department of Homeland Security to set
up an emergency shelter there last month, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered
the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to take control of the situation
on Monday. As the New
York Times reports, however, the unaccompanied children’s placement in a
refugee shelter is only temporary, as the majority will likely be deported
under U.S. law.

The reality that criminal,
frequently violent groups control many
of the migration routes across the U.S.-Mexico border is well-established. But
there has been comparatively little coverage of similar power structures along
Caribbean migration routes. The AP changes that this morning with a report on
three groups of Haitian and Cubans who were abandoned on
rocky islands off Puerto Rico by
migrant smugglers in recent days.

Ahead of the 44th General Assembly of the
Organization of American States (OAS) in Asuncion, Paraguay today, EFE
reports that OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza criticized recent
calls for reforms to the Inter-American human rights system. Insulza dismissed the
proposal to relocate the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights from its
current office in Washington, noting that the commission forms part of the
secretary general’s office, which would thus would have to move along with it.

Argentine Vice President Amado Boudou has
been ordered to
testify by a federal judge over allegations that he abused position as
economy minister in 2010 to help a printing company get out of tax obligations.
The Wall
Street Journal notes that the scandal comes at an inconvenient time for the
administration of President Cristina Fernandez, which is struggling to curb
inflation.

About The Author

Geoff Ramsey works as a communications officer for the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). Before joining WOLA, Ramsey worked as a researcher for the Open Society Foundation’s Latin America Program. His most recent work involved monitoring civil society advocacy for and implementation of 2013 drug policy reforms in Uruguay, where he lived for nearly two years. Prior to that he spent two years living in Colombia and Brazil, where he researched and reported on regional insecurity issues for InSight Crime. Any views or opinions expressed in these posts are the sole responsibility of the author. Email: gramsey (at) thepanamericanpost (dot) com